Getting your law firm found in an online search is more than just great keywords and inbound links.
Everyone (certainly Matte Pad readers) knows that using targeted keywords is vital to a firm’s search engine ranking. Along with keywords, there are many other ways to help your ranking, including keeping content fresh, embedding videos and inbound links, to name just a few. All of these strategies and more were discussed at the recent Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Francisco. Becky Barnett, president of Dot-Dot.com was kind enough to share a synopsis, and here are three quick trends that will help your law firm’s ranking.
Searches are becoming more personalized: Search results for an individual are being sorted and prioritized based on that individual’s past online behavior. For example, if the person doing the search has been to your law firm’s website in the past, the search engines remember this and may rank your firm higher in their search this time around. This can move you up the search results page, giving you the opportunity to stay in front of a potential client.
Your site must be viewable on mobile devices: Many websites love to use Flash for their splash page. Unfortunately, Flash cannot be read by iPhones or iPads. Since search engines register when someone gets bounced from your website, or is served an error, this can effect your ranking in a negative way. Creating a mobile website is vital to keeping your law competitive and keeping your law firm’s site well-placed in search results.
Interactions will move you up the page: Having the ability to leave comments, reviews or post questions is a great way to help your ranking. The more interactions your site gets, the higher your site will place in search results. Use sharing tools like Google +1 or social media share buttons to encourage people to click and share and drive more traffic to your site.
It seems every week there’s a new trick to be learned for improving your search engine ranking. I hope you find these three bits of advice helpful. If you have any tricks and tips you’ve recently learned, please feel free to share them in the comments.